Notary Stamp Takes Center Stage in WFP Judicial Petition

A Designating petition witnessed and filed by candidate Megan Miner-Malone for the Working Families Party is about to be ruled on at the county Board of Elections.

On the petition Malone uses a Notary Stamp in which she states her commission as "qualified in Saratoga County".  Official State records show she is qualified in her county of residence, Rensselaer County. According to the Department of State a stamp with such an error would invalidate the notarization, thus in this case, throw out the entire page of signatures the candidate gathered.

According to State Law, "the required information for notarization: their name; the words "Notary Public, State of New York"; the county in which they are qualified (that is, the county in which the county clerk holds their original certificate and signature card);  the date that the notary's commission expires."

Petitions aside, the question is why a lawyer would use a notary stamp with erroneous information, jeopardizing each and every affirmation obtained with the stamp?  Some attorneys believe it may have been done purposefully in order to obtain court assigned work in Saratoga County since there is a preference to give such work to county residents.

Whatever the reason, this candidate and lawyer as well as appointed town judge is using a stamp to notarize documents which is incorrect. If the matter goes to State Supreme Court things could get interesting as the Department of State might get involved to question the use of the stamp falsely stating Saratoga County as the county of qualification for this license.